The Net Workers Apprentice Work Shop: Seven Valuable Benefits Social Networks Provide and Social Media Marketers Covet

Today I was asked the most important question encompassing the subject of Social networks and social media marketing. The question I was asked is; What is the value of social media marketing, that is what are the benefits of social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Although these social networks are diverse in nature, they have common values both to subscribers and business people alike. That’s right, even though these networks operate in very different ways, their users often have very different motivations, different backgrounds and personal needs. They all provide these seven values to all that use them. Read on and find out why social networks and social media marketing is changing the face of the internet from what we know to what it will become.

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In order for any commodity, service or phenomena to grow on the internet it must provide value. These benefits must be based on un-changing principle for large scale growth to take place. Short term fancy fads will come and go, but massive growth the like that which has taken place on Facebook, Twitt
er, LinkedIn and Google+ are based on providing unique benefits to their subscribers. The dominance of Google is also based on the principle of providing massive amounts of value to its users. Any long term internet phenomena must also provide a monetary value for it to be self-sustaining. If you want to prosper from the internet today you can’t ignore social networks. In fact, you need to insure that your efforts are in alignment with the benefits these networks provide and you must follow the principle that they are built on. The principle I am referring to can be stated like this; any endeavor or entity that provides massive value to large numbers of people will occupy massive amounts of human kind’s time. Now let us look at these benefits.

Benefit #1, Your network's ability to help you build trust and credibility.

One of the main reasons people use social networks is because they are interacting with like-minded people. Indeed, they are interacting with family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances whom they know, like and trust. It’s the principle of trust that I believe is the most important factor. We live in a world were hyperbole if not outright lies are the norm. People want to interact with people they like, know and trus

t. It's part of our human nature. Social networks allow this to take place in a very democratic and dynamic way. You can organize friends, followers and connections into groups based on trust (amongst o

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ther things) and you can immediately un-trust, block, de-friend, or disconnect anyone you feel is unworthy of your time and attention. On the flip side is you maintain behavior that is friendly, courteous and provide content that is deemed valuable, you become trustworthy. As someone who is deemed trustworthy, you now have their ear, eyes and time. Most importantly you also can use this trust to build your credibility vicariously through the eyes and ears of your social network connections. Again, Trust is a greatly valued commodity that is in high demand in the world today. Gain it and it opens many doors that no other method can provide.

Benefit #2, Your network's ability to help you connect and influence others.

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Ask anyone what is the best form of advertising and they will usually say word of mouth marketing. Social networking allows you to connect to massive numbers of people, (especially customers and prospects). This ability to connect with large numbers of people is powerful. Unlike other types of media which for the most part a
re unidirectional forms of communications. Social media allows you to directly speak to your social partners. I call them partners because they have as much power as you the seller does. Treat them right and they will sing your praises. Mistreat them and they will share your shortcomings faster than you can say bad reputation. Now using any social network is predicated on the fact that you have built one. What I mean here is that you have to build up a sufficient number of connections in order for your network to produce the results you want. Most people are familiar with the sales rule of ten. The rule that essentially states that you have to go through ten suspects to fine one prospect and you have to go through 10 prospects to find one who will like become a customer. Following this logic, the greater the number of people you connect with, the greater the chance of selling them something. Well your social network also works along these lines. However, I suggest that you view the numbers a little differently. If you only have 100 connections you probably only have 10 people who see your message because they are monitoring their social news stream. On the other hand if you have 10,000 people in your network you probably have 1000 people viewing your message at any point in time. Bigger is always better, especially if you have taken the time to grow your connections in an organic and a value proposition way. So the point I am making here is start growing your network, be committed to real, steady and organic growth. You can’t buy trust or loyalty. It has to be earned.

Benefit #3, Your network's ability to help you quickly disseminate a message to others.

If you have taken the time to build a decent size network, you’re now ready for benefit number three. Lightning fast message dissemination. What is a decent size network you may ask? For me it

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is a minimum of 1000 connections. At 1000 connections at least 100 people are viewing your message within an hour’s time that it was posted. You will also have another 2 or 300 viewers before the day is out. Now imagine you have built a very large network of 25,000 connections. Your message would now command the eyes and ears of 2,500 people almost instantly. If you had 1 million plus connections like then Senator Barrack Obama had prior to being elected president you would have commanded the attention of 100,000 people immediately. You get the idea, the greater the number of connections in your network, the greater its potential to create an immediate wave of action. My message to you here is this. If you want to be able to generate immediate response to your marketing needs, you have to take the time to build a large network. By large I mean 10,000 plus connections. Do this and your message will be effective and will produce swift results. You still can’t violate your networks primary needs for trust and value so make sure your still delivery what you promised. Having said that, know that a bigger social network equals faster and more effective results.

Benefit #4, Your network's ability to support all your other advertising and marketing efforts.

One of the most amazing phenomena you see happening today is the massive migration of all media messages pointing at or emphasizing social media. You know what I’m talking about. Watch TV commercials, TV news, TV programs, and they are all telling you to connect with them on Twitter, Facebook or other social medium. Look at any magazine, newspaper or listen to any radio commercial. You can’t go more than a few pages or five minutes without hearing the words, “go to our social media page” or seeing a social media symbols in their ads. This is for very good reason. Social media provides

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the missing element that other advertising mediums have always been missing. Traditional advertising has always been unidirectional. A one way conversation where the commercials are speaking at you instead of speaking with you. What’s different is the fact that social media provides your side of the communications. So my message for you here is this. Social media can only improve your customers faith and interaction with your company. It gives your prospects and customers another and often better means for them to communicate with you. Ignore this fact and you risk alienating your prospects and customers. Not being accessible via the top social media networks is akin to not being in the yellow pages 20 years ago. I can assure you that your competition is well aware of this fact. If you ignore the importance of social media and how it can help all your other marketing efforts, that’s ok, but don’t ignore your competition.

Benefit #5, Your Social network's ability to provide you valuable feedback.

One of the most valuable aspects of any type of internet marketing is this. If you set it up properly it provides lots of feedback with respect to how well it is performing. You can measure any number of ty

Example 1. Optical feedback (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

pes of interactions including number of clicks, likes, comments, retweets, mentions, sign up, visits and much more. Conventional advertising does not offer such luxury unless you pay for special tracking phone numbers, require ads be brought in for redemption etc.… Social media's ability to measure most aspects of user interaction is very valuable because it lets you know if your marketing is working. It provides this feedback very quickly. This immediate feedback allows you to change and or tweak your marketing message. It allows you to choose which message is best, to improve a specific message or just stop a program that is just not working. The best social media marketing agencies constantly monitor and tweak your message to produce the maximum growth or result. You hear the saying that feedback is the breakfast of champions, well it’s also a vital necessity for any marketing campaign that produces positive results. So the takeaway here is this. Make sure you require feedback reports showing exactly what your marketing efforts are producing. Most social networks have many built in reports and the owner of the account has direct access to them. However if you never look at any of the reports, you're giving up one of the most valuable benefits that social media provides any business owner.

Benefit #6, Your networks’ ability to provide low cost direct & measurable marketing.

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Another great benefit of the internet and especially social media marketing is its relative low cost. Almost all social networks are free to join, setup and use. In most cases the only thing you will be paying for is the creation of custom pages, backgrounds, forms, connection development, connection management and connect engagement. Even if you hire a company to manage all aspects of your social media, your overall monthly cost per network will normally not exceed $400 a month. As a general rule, the more accounts a company manages the lower your cost per account. This is not always true for other types of advertising. So with social media you not only save on setup and usage (which except for the labor is mostly free), you also have lower cost of ownership because building custom pages, and other types of commercial functions cost less on social networks. Now add to this the fact that you can also engage in pay per click/view marketing on many social media networks directly. This can be done for as little as .59 cents a click and you have a recipe for low cost advertising. As a matter of fact your cost per hour of labor for social media will be well below the cost of most other forms of advertising, period. So the take away here is this. Social media development and marketing is a very low cost alternative to most other types of marketing. Use it and save money.

Benefit #7, Your ability to build a social base for touch marketing.

The last benefit I want to talk about is that utilizing and building a social network is a great way to also develop your very own database of customers, prospects and clients. All you have to do is capture the information you have been given access to. This aspect of social media is often overlooked

Customer Touch Point Map (Photo credit: Jen Beever)

by businesses engaged in social media marketing. The lowest cost type of advertising you can engage in is repeat marketing to your existing customers and prospect base. Direct email and newsletter marketing is a very low cost form of marketing. On top of that you can also use this information for telemarketing and direct mail marketing, both very effective forms of marketing. This is especially true when you are marketing to your established network of customers and prospects. Do yourself a favor and don’t neglect this benefit of social media marketing. Use it and enjoy the benefits of many repeats and upgraded sales.

There you have it, seven core benefits that social networks provide and social media marketers covet. Whether you desire to grow a following of 5,000 or 5 million, sway public opinion, build positive buzz or you just want to sell your product to the millions on the internet, you know you can’t ignore social networks. The growth of large social networks is changing the marketing landscape of the internet every day. This article provides the reader seven unchanging benefits that social networks provide. You can take advantage of these benefits to achieve business growth and obtain marketing goals. Learn these principles that these benefits are based on. Better yet align your strategies and techniques so they principles remain unbroken. Break these principles by ignoring social networks and you could be relegating your company to a dying breed that ignored rapid change in the pass. Besides, social media marketing can be some of the most cost effective marketing you can do today. Be patient, provide value, useful content and embrace the steady growth. If you do, you will enjoy the benefits while others are scratching their head trying to figure out what you’re doing right.

That’s my opinion, I want to hear yours.

Hector Cisneros is the director of Social Media Marketing at W Square Media Group, a writer and author, has been an entrepreneur for more than 30 years, is a veteran of BNI for 19 years and was a BNI director for over five years. He is still an active BNI member and follows the philosophy of Givers Gain. He is the owner of several businesses in Jacksonville, Florida. He actively coaches business owners in the fine art of Online advertising, Business Networking and Word of Mouth marketing. He is a principle partner in W Squared Media Group and the president of Website Know How, Inc. a holding company for several of his business ventures that include online advertising, word of mouth marketing, real estate holdings, non-profit training/support, book publishing, health and wellness product sales and Adventure sports. Hector's new book 60 Seconds to success, teaches business owners how to get the most from word of mouth marketing by using great 60 second introductions. To learn more about Hector Cisneros, Social Media, Online Marketing or Word of Mouth Marketing visit Hector's profile on EzineArticles.com Networkers Apprentice workshop http://networkersapprentice.com or my book website at http://www.60SecondsToSuccess.com